Ever since I started this blog, I have made sorry attempts to highlight a spooky museum or weird collection/site during the month of October. It begins with promise, but then ends miserably. Well, this time I am really going to try to cover some strange and unusual places every weekday. Let’s start with the “Gates of Hell” in Turkmenistan. Gates of Hell, you ask? Yes, in the tiny village of Derweze in the Karakum desert is a 328 feet wide hole that has been on fire for 38 years. This isn’t an act of God or Mother Nature, but an industrial accident caused by the Soviet Union. A drilling rig accidentally broke into an underground natural gas cavern, causing the ground to collapse and poisonous fumes to leak. To avoid the release of toxic gases, the Soviets set the hole on fire and it’s been burning ever since. If this was America, this place would be turned into a camping site where tourists could toast giant s’mores and burn their faces off. Sounds like fun, eh?
“Gates of Hell” in Turkmenistan
